Enhancing Team Performance by Integrating IBM RRC, RTC, and HP QC

Traceability is the lifeline of Application Lifecycle Management. In order to create relationships or links among requirements and other lifecycle items, organizations often decide to go with Requirements Management solutions. Tracing and understanding relationships between requirements and lifecycle artifacts are critical to application development. IBM Rational Requirements Composer provides a 360 degree requirements management capability and allows users to define and capture business needs and manage them throughout a project lifecycle.

On the other hand HP QC and IBM RTC are two widely used tools in the software industry. HP QC provides a platform for Requirements, Test, and Defect Management with a single repository. It is used by Business Analysts, Developers, and Testers to log Requirements, manage Requirements, log Defects and Test Cases and verify them. IBM RTC can help software development teams to store and organize an enormous amount of information.

ALMrequires close collaboration of distributed teams of Business Analysts, Developers, and Quality Assurance specialists. Hence, teams using IBM RRC, HP QC and IBM RTC need sophisticated integration of these three tools so that data can flow from one to other flawlessly enabling team members to work in a coordinated manner.

In a typical development scenario, the primary input required is the set of requirements. Once RRC, RTC and HP QC are integrated, Business Analysts can upload Requirement in RRC which can be moved to HP QC automatically. Developers using RTC can code as per the Task (linked with Requirements) and check-in the code in RTC. Tester can check the Requirements and accordingly draft Test Cases and then raise Defects for all the issues. So analysts, developers, and testers all being present in their own tool can work in sync to deliver the items effectively.

Here is what you can achieve from HP QC and IBM RRC and RTC integration:

Exclusive features that you can get by using Kovair Omnibus for RTC and QC integration:

Conflict Management for Requirements as data flows to RTC from RRC as well as HP QC

Synchronize RTC User Story to QC Test Requirements / RRC Requirements

Synchronize QC Defects to RTC Defects

Update either tool data in your customized workflow

Support for RTF (?) Fields, Attachments and Comments

Working Scenario of IBM RRC, RTC and HP QC Integration:

Kovair Omnibus integration platform includes IBM RRC Adapter, RTC Adapter and HP QC Adapter. Together, with the adapters and platform, it allows the user to establish links among resources. Once the tools are connected through Kovair Omnibus, following scenarios are possible:

Business Analysts can upload Requirement in RRC as well as in HP QC which can be migrated to IBM RTC automatically as User Story.

Managers can create Task in RTC for each Requirement.

Developers can code as per the Task (linked with Requirements) and check-in the code in RTC.

Check-in can automatically fire a build in any Build System. In parallel, tester can write Test Case against each Requirement.

Let’s take a deeper look into the integrated environment.

In HP Quality Center, concepts for planning and execution are defined; the Plan is where one can define Cases with Steps and group them into folders. With this concept one can then link the folders that contain the Sets.

When IBM RRC and HP QC are connected then two way Requirements collection is possible. As HP QC comes to this environment, entire development flow becomes enhanced. Here is an example: Defects raised in HP QC after Test Case execution can be migrated to RTC where Developers can fix it and update the status followed by code check-in. This will update the testers who can, in parallel, test each of the Requirements. So once all the Requirements are implemented, tested and passed, delivery process can be started.

HP QC’s effectiveness lies in its ability to store and classify tests and their results. Testers enter Test Cases into Quality Center, together with the expected results. Actual Results are entered when the tests are executed. If Defects are discovered, they are entered into Quality Center and RTC users (developers) can fix them accordingly. From RRC, an analyst can view which requirements are implemented and when is the expected release date.

Large organizations with teams distributed across the globe, often find it difficult to collaborate. Different teams use different tools; myriad of data closed in isolated blocks. By integrating multiple tools organizations can create an integrated ecosystem within which data can flow freely.

Kovair Omnibus Integration Platform provides an easy way to achieve this. Visit Kovair Omnibus section to learn about the platform; you can contact us if you have any specific question regarding ALM integration.

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Joydeep Datta serves as Director for Product development, responsible for all engineering offerings.
He brings to this role deep expertise in the architectural design, core Integration architecture, Application & Technology Architecture. He has more than 15 years of experience. He is responsible for architecting and implementing enterprise grade products and specializes in process and data integration.